China sentences 12 to death for Xinjiang violence

BEIJING (AP) — A court in China's western Xinjiang region has sentenced to death 12 people blamed for terrorist attacks that killed 37 people in July, state media reported Monday.

Xinhua News Agency said the court in Kashgar prefecture sentenced another 15 people to death with a two-year reprieve, and nine people received life sentences. Xinhua said another 20 defendants received terms of four to 20 years.

Xinhua reported in August that attackers armed with knives and axes had stormed a police station and government offices in Elixku township before moving onto nearby Huangdi township. Xinhua said the police had killed 59 of the attackers.

The U.S.-based Uyghur American Association, however, said police opened fire on people protesting a security crackdown on Muslims during Ramadan, killing more than 20.

Verifying what happened is impossible due to China's tight control over the region.

Tensions have run high between the Muslim Uighur ethnic group and Han Chinese in Xinjiang, with ethnic violence claiming hundreds of lives over the past year. Chinese authorities say they are battling separatist terrorists in the region, but Uighur groups say Chinese authorities have suppressed their religion and culture and violently cracked down on Uighurs who have voiced discontent.